Considerably Wicked [Excerpt Only]

Chapter 1: HUBRIS

Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the unplowed field of the wicked—produce sin.

Hubris―

I could still remember how my father once taught me about the cardinal sins and how humanity struggled—and fell. He taught me of sacrificing one's self and serving a purpose, of redemption and salvation. As he had said before, redemption is only the first step to salvation and that this is the process of renewing and freeing people from their servitude to sin by acquiring back their liberty from it at a cost.

The price they have to pay to be redeemed and to serve a purpose to ready themselves to be whole and pure again is their life. Of course.

I mean, what could equal life but life itself?

And that's how my father taught me my purpose. I was missioned to facilitate and make sure that the transformation of sinners to being pure again is carried out. And yes, I get a little payment for serving this purpose because...I mean, why not? If earning a little dough for doing dirty laundry was a crime, then I'm guilty and must be punished. But it is not explicitly mentioned anywhere that accepting donations falls in any certain category of a deadly sin, is it? But if it were, I'd gladly accept it and agree to pay such sin with my life.

But what about murder, you ask? Isn't it a sin that is both punishable by the laws of earth and the heavens? True. But our world has long been filled with violence; even the Bible has reflected so much of this savagery. What of those countries using death as capital punishment? Death penalty, premeditated or not, is still murder. I am a murderer, yes, and I have accepted that fact so long ago. I execute the death sentence, just like our government. The only difference is that the government has the people's permission to kill, to bring and impose justice blah, blah, blah, while I have none but my purpose.

Now, going back to my noble cause of murdering people to free them from the bondage of sin, I don't just go killing people based on hearsays. Let me make that one crystal clear. My clients must provide evidence that the person they want me to punish have, in fact, been corrupted and have failed as a human being. My qualifier is meticulous and specific. The sin must be reflected in their actions and be in accordance with either of the seven capital sins they're most guilty of.

But why the seven deadly sins?

The answer is pretty much simple. These seven sins are fatal to humanity's spiritual progress, magnifying our spiritual shortcomings and enslaving us to no end. Many people say that pride is the mother of all sins. Some say that greed is the root of all wrongs in the world. Well, I say all seven of these cardinal sins are the culprit, really. And people living their lives with any of these sins, in copiousness, must be redeemed. As evil as I may be, I still believe in giving second chances, you see. But these detestable—

"Hmmm..."

Oh, wait. She's finally awake.

And then there was light.

Her eyes fluttered at the flickering strobe light. She let out a hiss of pain, twisting when she realized she was tied up. Her blonde hair was damp with her own sweat, and her pale lips were pursed in an expression of agony. The mass of blood matting her blonde hair and her bruised lips suggested as to why. Her eyes opened and squinted at the pulsating pain belching from different parts of her body, especially her head. She tried to move and opened her eyes once again only to discover that she was hanging. She carefully looked up at the red Shibari knot intricately tied around her wrist that was tied back to the rings screwed into the beam ceiling. She was stretched, and the red knot was digging into the skin of her wrist. Gravity was painfully stretching her body downward, her bare feet barely touching the grimy ground.